News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 1 - 15 of 15
The Sisters Quilt Show brings thousands of women to town. I thought they’d appreciate films about strong women. These are not “fun” films. They tell the stories of women around the world who keep their families fed and clothed despite miserable conditions. Lorraine Hansberry wrote A Raisin in the Sun, the first successful Broadway play ever written by a black woman. Raisin was nominated for the 1960 Best Play Tony award. Hansberry, the director (Daniel Petrie) and actors (Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil) in the 1... Full story
Americans like road trips. Hollywood, understanding this propensity in the 1960s and 70s, drove audiences across the country in some classic films. These trips aren’t to somewhere. They’re from everything. Easy Rider (1969) is a double trip (two guys, two meanings for “trip”), financed by cocaine and fueled by marijuana. The quiet, contemplative, some say Christ-like Captain America (Peter Fonda) wears the Stars and Stripes on his jacket, his helmet, and motorcycle. Billy (Dennis Hopper) tags along as an affable apostle. Alon... Full story
Because June is the traditional “let’s get married” month, I’ve been watching a bunch of wedding movies to see which ones you might enjoy. I rejected Runaway Bride (silly attempt to recapture the Julia Roberts/Richard Gere Pretty Woman success), My Best Friend’s Wedding (Julia Roberts again, but in a strangely churlish role), and The Wedding Planner (dippy plot and Matthew McConaughey, as the leading man, doesn’t do it for me). So skip those. You’ve probably seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), a movie that uses a formul... Full story
My neighbor Bill Alvarado lifted Steve Prefontaine’s MG Midget off him the night he crashed on a corner in front of the Alvarados’ house. Bill yelled for someone to come and pull “Pre” from under the wreck. No one came, so he had to set the MG down. Pre died under the car at age 24, in May, 1975. At the time Pre held the American record in every running event from 2,000 to 10,000 meters. He had won four consecutive NCAA titles in the 5,000 meters, the first athlete to win so many in a single event. Pre was a hero to the Alv... Full story
Here are some movies you can use to prod your family into a sense of historical consciousness, maybe even awareness, perhaps saving them from the fate of this week’s film heroes. Each of the men in The Remains of the Day, The English Patient, and Hotel Rwanda excels at his job and ignores what is happening around him until he has to face the consequences of his blindness. The Remains of the Day, a film version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Booker Prize novel, was made by one of the world’s most respected directors, James Ivory, with... Full story
What do Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, and Julia Roberts have in common? 1. They all are beautiful. Taylor (born 1932) at the peak of her career was a stacked (36C-21-36) five-foot-four, violet-eyed stunner with “the perfect boneless body,” according to somebody. Fonda (born 1937) is 5-feet-8-inches and lean (32B-24-31 — in 1980). Once a fashion model, she supposedly was bulimic from age 13 to 37. Later, she became an exercise guru. Roberts (born 1967) is 5-feet-9-inches and downright lanky (and it’s no longer cool to give wo... Full story
The Japanese had a hard time letting go of feudalism. They took 500 years longer than Europeans to embrace the modern era. Japanese reluctance had a lot to do with the samurai. Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) is set in Japan’s Warring States Period (1467-1573). During this lawless age of civil wars, farmers were routinely attacked and pillaged by roving bands of brigands. Samurai, many of whom worked on farms between military assignments, were in great demand as independent Japanese states constantly fought each oth... Full story
One in every 1,250 Americans is a stalker but one in every 166 Americans has been or is being stalked. I guess time and multiple-victim stalkers explain that discrepancy. More than a million women but “only” 370,000 men are stalked each year in the U.S. I guess testosterone explains this one. So why, over a period of seven years, was Michael Douglas stalked by three separate women? Mike was the victim in Fatal Attraction (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), and Disclosure (1994). How can women be stalkers? Pennsylvania’s legal... Full story
Oregon still has some places where population density is measured in square miles per person rather than people per square mile. But they can’t compare with the remoteness of the places depicted in today’s films. Nor can many movies match the excellence of these award-winning examinations of native cultures. Two students studying documentary filmmaking in Germany, Byambasuren Davaa (Mongolian) and Luigi Falorni (Italian), made The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003). Camel’s part of the Mongolian Gobi Desert is about the same... Full story
Easter films are like “Rashomon” (1950). Akira Kurosawa’s classic film features four people who tell the same story differently. Most people know the basic story of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. But versions of exactly how and why these events happened are different. The devil is in the details. Sometimes literally. Director Martin Scorcese (“The Aviator,” 2004) is a deeply religious man who entered a seminary in 1956 with the intention of becoming a priest. His excellent film “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988... Full story
During the Reformation, England took over Ireland and imposed Protestantism upon its Catholic population. Then British settlers moved over and grabbed Ireland’s best land. Later, in 1690, followers of King James II, a Catholic, fought against supporters of challenger William of Orange, a Protestant. William won. For the next 200 years, Ireland saw rebellions flare up and die. Irish battles were particularly fierce during the 20th Century. When British soldiers summarily executed leaders of the 1916 “Easter Uprising,” a membe... Full story
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your kids and Colm Meaney. Meaney, a quintessential Irish actor, was born in Dublin. However, he is best known for playing a Scottish role, Chief Miles O’Brien on two American TV series: “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” Today we find him back home on the Emerald Isle in two films and on the Isle of Man for a third. Two of these films, “War of the Buttons” (1994) and “Owd Bob” (1997), are sure winners for the grade school crowd as is one lacking Meaney, “The Se... Full story
Here are some films to take you from St. Valentine’s to St. Patrick’s. Almost everyone in Sisters willing to name a favorite romance came up with “The Quiet Man” (1952), John Ford’s movie about an American boxer (John Wayne) who returns to his native Ireland and encounters a red-haired colleen (Maureen O’Hara). Ford was interested in Ireland. He was christened Sean Aloysius O’Feeney (sometimes listed as John Martin Feeney) — as fine an Irish name as a bhoyo can have. According to the New York Times’ 1952 review, he studie... Full story
Don’t watch these movies with your kids. Even if they’re grown-ups. No one suggests these films as favorite romances. They are better described as anti-romances. Although beautifully made (most are on “The New York Times Top 1,000 List” and won many awards worldwide), they are not pretty. They are about sex and even love as power. In Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris” (1972) Jeanne (Maria Schneider), a 20-year-old, beautiful Parisienne, meets Paul (Marlon Brando), a 45-year-old American, whose wife just killed h... Full story
Here are two historic romances to watch with your teenage kid. These two-tape epics will spark interest not only in hormonal subjects but also history and geography, in this case World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia. Both movies will provoke heated conversations and provide a lot of material for further investigation. David Lean’s painterly and sentimental “Dr. Zhivago” (1965) is one of Sisters’ favorite romance films. Although it has been criticized roundly for Robert Bolt’s awkward screenplay, I find the film... Full story
